This is a short post about F.O.O.D. (cause, let’s be honest,
you want to know what I’m eating!)
Breakfast/ khaja- meaning “snack” as opposed to khaanaa-
meaning “food/meal” used to describe lunch/dinner
My two favorites are:
#1 1
hard boiled egg
1
cup of dudh chiyaa (milk tea)
1
omelet (with tomatoes, coriander, and onion)
#2 1
small bowl of alooah (I describe it like ‘Nepali carrot cake porridge’ made of
gram flour, sugar, carrots, cinnamon, and water)
1
cup of kaagati chiyaa (lemon tea)
 |
| My Favorite Breakfast- Omelet and Lemon Chiyaa |
Lunch/ khaanaa- made by Dorjedaai and
Dondaai at school
Food at school is ALWAYS, I repeat ALWAYS delicious.
Everything is homemade, different, and fills us up. It’s torture sometimes
sitting in class having to smell the sweet fragrance of caramelizing onions or
flaky and buttery quiche baking in the oven.
Lunch highlights:
-
Tacos!
-
Spinach and onion quiche
-
Roasted chicken, garlic broccoli, and mashed
potatoes with gravy (and apple pie for dessert!)
-
Salad (so simple yet hits the spot every time
since raw veggies aren’t that common)
-
Pizza
-
Honey yogurt
Dinner/ khaanaa- made by my aamaa (sometimes
my bahini, Pragya, helps too)
DAALBHAAT. Daal bhaat. daal bhaat. daal bhaat. daal bhaat.
daal bhaat. daal. bhaat.
Daal-
lentils
Bhaat-
rice
While we don’t just eat rice and lentils alone, essentially
every dinner is a heap of steamy rice with a little bowl of stewed lentils
(that resembles a soup more than lentils I have in the U.S.) Sides with
daalbhaat are typically:
-
cauliflower & potatoes
-
tomatoes &potatoes
-
mushrooms & potatoes
-
peas & mushrooms
In addition, my aamaa pounds out (with mortar and pestle)
some type of achaar- “pickle” every
meal that you grab a pinch of each bite to make it tangy or spicy. Sometimes
it’s tomato achaar that tastes just
like salsa and other times it’s radish and onion that’s quite bitter and smelly
(not my fave).
The secret to eating daalbhaat however, is not what you eat
with it, but what you eat it with:
Your hands.
Yes, that’s right. My dreams have come true and I am not
only told to eat with my hands, but I’m encouraged
to play with my food. This is how it works: You’ve got 3 distinct piles on your
plate (rice, veggies, and pickle sauce) with a small bowl of lentils on the
side. The strategy is to have an open space on the plate where you do your
mixing. You grab a little rice, a little veggie, and a dab of achaar and then pour a small amount of daal on top and then proceed to mix it
together. Yes, with your hands. Once it’s all incorporated, you grab a
bite-sized lump in your fingers and shovel it into your mouth with the aid of
your thumb. I’ll have to teach everyone when I get home, but it’s pretty fun,
quite effective, and just makes sense!
Khaja- my favorite
snacks
-
nariwaal laagdu (coconut balls that taste
similar to macaroons)
-
biscuits (crackers)
-
suntala-
“oranges”
-
peanut butter
-
mango juice
-
Snyder’s honey mustard pretzel pieces (we found
them at the super market and every one of us grabs so many we raid the shelf as
if the world is about to end)
-
Strawberry popsicle
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| My Third Favorite Breakfast- Guliyo Roti |
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| Aerial Shot of MiTho breakfast =) |
“Bad Food” List
These are some foods that I’ve tried and just can’t accept:
-
mango achaar- I’m sorry but mangos (my favorite
fruit in the world) simply should not be pickled
-
cornflakes and milk- it’s soggy, hot, thick, and
creamy (and I don’t do milk)
-
Chocopie- a Korean version of a Hostess product
(horrible marshmallow “cookie”)
-
Daal bhaat- okay, I know I just said it’s fun to
eat, but eating the same thing can get a wee bit tiring and so it
comforts me adding it to the bad list sometimes, but for the most part it's ekdam miTho (very tasty)
 |
| My birthday cake |
I’m realizing I promised this would be a short post about
food. This isn’t short. Who was I kidding?
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